A bed rail on a bed, for example a hospital or long-term care bed, is used in a so-called guardrail position (also called a closed position) to keep a person from falling out of the bed and then moved to an open position to allow the person to exit the bed. As such, the bed rail must be moved, for example rotated, from the guardrail position to the open position, or vice versa. In order to move the rail efficiently, it is usually necessary to design tolerance between the moving parts and other parts on the bed. Such tolerance may lead to rattling of the rail in the guardrail position and to noise generated therefrom. Such noise can be very annoying and intrusive, especially in a facility where the environment is intended to be as quiet as possible. Therefore, there is a need in the art to reduce rattling of bed rails, particularly on hospital and long-term care beds.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,930,273 issued Jan. 6, 1976 to Stern discloses the use of a spring washer to reduce vibration between parts of a rotatable rail assembly.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,186,456 issued Feb. 5, 1980 to Huempfner teaches the use of a tubular bushing fitted into an anchoring member to provide a smoother bearing surface for swivel action of a rail.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,020,169 issued Jun. 4, 1991 ti Hamada et al. discloses the use of a “supplemental member” to take up the tolerance between a plunger and a guide groove so that an engaging element can slide along a guide rail without vibrating or shaking.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,740,568 issued Apr. 21, 1998 to Elliott discloses a square bushing having a flexible finger for preventing rattling of the bushing in a slot.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,519,794 issued Feb. 18, 2003 to Aarestad et al. discloses that vibration of a side rail for a bed can be prevented by having a tapered lock pin hole in which a tapered lock pin sits tightly.
There remains a need for effective ways for controlling rattling of a bed rail on a bed.